Borussia Dortmund II made a successful start to the second half of their Regional League campaign by beating bottom-of-the-table TSG Sprockhövel 4-1 (2-1) on Saturday in front of 392 fans at the Rote Erde Stadion, though the hosts struggled more than expected in the first 45 minutes.

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BVB remain in third position, on 44 points. The Black and Yellows trail top-of-the-table Borussia Mönchengladbach II (46 points) and second-place Viktoria Köln (45), whose matches were cancelled, though they have a game in hand on both their rivals.

"I'm very satisfied. I'd like to pay the lads a big compliment for how they dealt with the whole situation today. We've now moved to within touching distance of the top of the table. Our development has been very positive," said coach Daniel Farke.

Farke made a surprise personnel change ahead of the restart by selecting goalkeeper Dominik Reimann to make his comeback following a seven-month spell on the sidelines with a shoulder injury. First-choice custodian Hendrik Bonmann had travelled to Freiburg with the first team on Friday.

Reimann's return got off to a less-than-ideal start after a lob by Sprockhövel's Christopher Antwi-Adjej from around 20 metres took a deflection over the BVB shot-stopper to put the visitors ahead in the sixth minute. TSG's lead was to be short-lived, however. Immediately after the restart, Jonas Arweiler broke through down the left flank before setting up Moroccan forward Hamadi Al Ghaddioui for the easiest of tap-ins (7).

Sprockhövel tried to frustrate BVB by lining up with a back five, protected by three defensive midfielders. But despite struggling for ideas for most of the first 45 minutes, the hosts still managed to take in a 2-1 lead at the break thanks to Lars Dietz's header from a Massih Wassey cross on the stroke of half-time (42).

Farke's team sparked into life after the interval, scoring twice in the first four minutes to kill the game: first came an Al Ghaddioui strike following fine work by Marco Hober (46), then Arweiler headed home from a Wassey cross to round off the victory (49). Though Borussia came close with other chances, the score remained at 4-1.

Next up for the Black and Yellow reserves is a trip to SC Wiedenbrück next Saturday (14:00 CET).

BVB II: Reimann - Camoglu, Mainka, Zimmermann, Dietz (Schumacher, 71) - Sauerland (Fritz, 75) - Wassey, Hober, Eberwein, Arweiler - Al Ghaddioui (Hanke, 84)
Goals: 0-1 Antwi-Adjej (6), 1-1 Al Ghaddioui (7), 2-1 Dietz (42), 3-1 Al Ghaddioui (46), 4-1 Arweiler (49)
Attendance: 392